What Does It Mean to Be Single in Indonesia? Religiosity, Social Stigma, and Marital Status Among Never-Married Indonesian Adults

Abstract

The increasing number of never-married individuals has become a global phenomenon. Like many Asian countries, the sociocultural standard in Indonesia defines being married as a desirable social achievement, which leaves single adults vulnerable to derogation. Religiosity is also highly valued in Indonesian society, to the extent that those who show religious attributes tend to be positively regarded. This study aims to describe how Indonesian society defines the status and to explore the role of religiosity in overcoming its negative stigma. This is a narrative literature review study of relevant published literature from the last two decades. Our literature analysis showed that religiosity may mitigate the effect of being undervalued both by increasing the capacity to cope and by providing socially valued attributes that are regarded positively by Indonesian society. However, there is a risk that although singles can use religiosity as a primary coping mechanism to manage their social difficulties, society as a whole does not undergo genuine cultural shifts toward accepting a later age for marriage or singlehood as life choices. Although future studies are needed to comprehensively address the issues, the social acts of reducing stigma toward Indonesian singles are urgently needed. is a licensed clinical psychologist, a lecturer in the faculty of Psychology, Universitas Pelita Harapan, Indonesia, and a PhD candidate in the University of Queensland, Australia. His research interests include interpersonal relationship (dating, marriage, and singleness), religiosity and spirituality, and psychological functioning in various social interactions.Matthew Bambling is a senior lecturer and researcher in the

Marital Status and Subjective Well-Being: Does Education Level Take Into Account?

“…For instance, with their tendency to be happier than other categories of marital status like singles, cohabitating, widowed, and the divorced ones who tend to have lower level of life satisfaction, the married people have been reported to have a high level of life satisfaction as reported by (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999;Diener, Gohm, Suh, & Oishi, 2000, Ha & Kim, 2013. They are also in line with different studies carried out in Indonesia related to subjective well-being/happiness and marital status which have shown that married individuals are happy compared to unmarried ones Himawan et al, 2017Himawan et al, , 2018, Indonesian married individuals seem to be happier than the single ones (Rosifah et al, 2019). Nonetheless, it is not only the case of Indonesia, but also the same all over the world, as it has been revealed in their different studies related to subjective well-being and marital status (Veenhoven, 2006;Yap et al, 2012;Anusic et al, 2014;Greenstein, 2016;Lucas, 2018).…”

Norms in Transition? The Relationship between Education and Singlehood

“…This idea implies that marriage is viewed as a religious obligation (Himawan, Bambling and Edirippulige 2018b, Ibrahim and Hassan 2009). The perception will make singles to feel burdened and intimidated especially when they are in their religious community, particularly, when their status is involuntarily single (Himawan, Bambling and Edirippulige 2018b) In this paper, we argue that the persistent universal norms towards marriage and social stigma towards singleness continue to overshadow the effect of increase in educational achievement to singlehood in Indonesia. Following the multiple equilibrium framework by Esping-Andersen (2009) and Esping-Andersen and Billari (2015), Indonesia's gender norm and attitude has shifted from conservative-traditional male-breadwinner model to a more egalitarian context, but the adaptation of women in the labour market role and men in domestic sphere is still slowly progressing.…”

“…Religion also plays a significant role in shaping the norms towards permanent singlehood. As one of the largest Moslem countries in the world, most of Indonesian society interpret marriage as one of God's demands (Himawan, Bambling and Edirippulige 2018b). This idea implies that marriage is viewed as a religious obligation (Himawan, Bambling and Edirippulige 2018b, Ibrahim and Hassan 2009).…”

Application Design for Registration of Civil Appeals with Intuitive District Courts

“…Private law is a law that only regulates the relationship between the diversity of the state or society itself, such as maturity, marriage, divorce, immortality, inheritance, property, business activities, and actions of nature. Civil or private, not public, is different from criminal law or public law which regulates matters related to the state and public interests such as politics, elections, crime, and others [6] [12][13] [14]. As for the systematics of civil law in Indonesia, there are two opinions, that are:…”

“…Based on article 180 paragraph (1) of the HIR stated "A district court may order the decision to be carried out beforehand, even though the decision is denied or appealed. A valid letter is a written letter which according to the applicable regulations for that matter has the strength of evidence, or if there is a previous sentence with a verdict which has obtained definite power, same as if the provisional charges are granted" [11] [14].…”